Wendy Lill

[Petitions, June 13th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure today to rise in the House and present over 600 signatures from my community of Dartmouth.

The people of Dartmouth are concerned that the Liberals have ignored the top priority of Canadians in the 2000 budget by giving only 2% for health care, and that the federal government is now only paying 13.5% of the health care costs leading to shortages of nurses, hospital beds and emergency spaces in our hospitals.

The people of Dartmouth want to see an immediate injection of federal money back into our health care system bringing it up to 25% of funding immediately, and also, to implement home care programs and a national program for prescription drugs. They want to stop for profit hospitals and federal funding restored for health care.

[Persons With Disabilities, June 7th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the minister responsible for Canadians with disabilities. Currently if any recipient of CPP disability does limited volunteer work for any community agency, there is no action taken by CPP because volunteering is recognized as a useful and necessary experience. But if a recipient receives any payment of any kind for his or her efforts, CPP is immediately cut off.

Can the minister tell the House why her ministry encourages those with disabilities to volunteer, but punishes them for trying to work?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2000, June 6th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to be registered as voting no on this bill.

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, June 5th, 2000]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the third group of motions on Bill C-11, the bill to divest the government of Cape Breton coal mines.

Earlier this evening on the second group of motions I spoke about federal government policy mistakes in the 1980s that have left Devco in the state it is in today. First, there was the decision not to develop the Donkin mine. Some 300,000 tonnes of coal which would have allowed for a healthy transition to a diverse economy were not mined. Federal and provincial government money instead went into the development of Westray, which we now know was a colossal disaster for many people in Nova Scotia.

The mine is not viable now because of short-sighted government decisions. Even though the coal is there, the markets are there and the miners are there, the government is divesting itself of Cape Breton coal mines.

Where will that leave the people of Cape Breton? I have some thoughts on that. Many members who have spoken very eloquently today have other thoughts on that. I want to look at the areas of poverty, out-migration, employment, education and housing.

First, I will talk about poverty. As would be expected in an area of high unemployment, the Cape Breton region has the worst poverty in Nova Scotia. Three of Nova Scotia's four poorest counties, as measured by the economic dependency ratio, are in the Cape Breton region, Cape Breton county, where the Phalen and Prince mines are located. Cape Breton county, with 13% of Nova Scotia's population in 1997, had 26% of social assistance recipients and 30% of workmen's compensation claimants.

I will now talk about out-migration. To the extent that former Devco employees are able to relocate, they will add to Cape Breton's chronic population decline. The population decline is not uniform across age groups. Between 1993 and 1998, the Cape Breton region had a net out-migration of minus 5,632. Cape Breton county bore the brunt of this population loss with 4,517. Of these, over 2,000 were in the age group of 18 to 24, all of our young people. Over 1,000 were in the age group of 25 to 44. Many in this latter group migrated with their children, accounting for a loss through migration of 665 in the under 17 age group.

What is the impact of all this economic devastation on education? There was a sharp decline in school enrolment, down 21% in Cape Breton and Victoria counties between 1985 and 1999, with a province wide decrease of only 7%. With provincial school funding based on a per student formula, this has made it difficult for Cape Breton schools to provide needed programming. Significant out-migration of former Devco employees and their families will aggravate this problem.

What about housing? Another impact of the declining population is on housing sales and prices. The great majority of Cape Bretoners own their own homes. Houses are hard to sell in Cape Breton. It will likely be very difficult to relocate Devco employees and to help them sell their houses. Cape Breton is in a crisis and the Devco closure will make it even worse.

The Prime Minister is in Europe right now talking about the Canadian way. I want to send the government a simple message about Canada. We are a country which has always believed that the Canadian way involves responsible government. When one shuts down the mines and sits idly by as the provinces shut down the Cape Breton steel industry, the community is devastated. That is not responsible government. That is simply cruelty.

Cape Breton will not be the same with the closure of the mine. The infrastructure will be gone and it will not be rebuilt by the private sector. What is being done by the bill will not be undone. Having short term and stop gap solutions which are cleverly labelled transition funds gives no hope to communities like Sydney, Glace Bay, New Waterford, Dominion and many others. These communities have had their futures sold and the obvious response of the government is that it does not care.

If the members opposite force Bill C-11 into law then they obviously do not understand the consequences of their actions or they do not care about the future of Cape Breton.

Cape Bretoners are not looking for handouts. They want to work. They want to have a future for their families on the island. They want to control their own future, as we all do, and they want the major collective instrument which all Canadians have available to them, and that is our government, to act as a partner for their future not as an enemy who will deprive them of hope.

Like the people who founded this country, Cape Bretoners want a responsible government, one which listens, one which they feel will be there when they need it and one which will be willing to support them if that means helping all Canadians.

Sadly, with Bill C-11 we are seeing that none of these glorious goals our country was built on are reflected or supported, only dismantled.

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, June 5th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise again to defend the interests of the people of Cape Breton against the government's plans as expressed in Bill C-11.

We are now at report stage. It is clear that the orders to government MPs have come down, which means no reasonable offers to change the bill are being accepted. We have seen government MPs oppose changes proposed by the duly elected representatives from Cape Breton to give Islanders some control over their future within the draconian regime set up under Bill C-11. Their reasonable offers to make the bill better have been shot down. This shows me that Bill C-11 is another legislative attempt, another piece of the Liberal government plan to dismantle the major institutions that build our country. The Liberals may deny this, but they have to learn that their actions have consequences.

The situation facing Cape Breton today has been brought about by some major government policy failures of the 1980s. I would like to take a moment to put on record some of these failures. Devco faced a number of problems in the 1980s, notably the impact of the 1981-82 recession and a disastrous fire that forced the permanent closure of No. 26 colliery in Glace Bay. Adding to these events were several policy decisions that had a direct impact on Devco's future. Since the 1984 loss of No. 26 Devco:

—has been living from hand to mouth without a long term plan for a reasonable, stable coal industry, hence the present situation.

That was a quote by Kent in 1996. Another quote reads:

Faced with a loss of production from No. 26 Devco opted to develop the geologically troubled Phalen mine while leaving undeveloped the Donkin deposit containing an estimated 300,000 tonnes. With the closure of the 26-year-old Lingan Mine in 1991, Devco was left as a two mine operation with no plans to develop a third mine. The shortsightedness of the approach was demonstrated when Phalen's premature shutdown precipitated the current crisis for Devco employees and their community.

Secondly, the Westray misadventure was harmful to Devco's future. There is some evidence that backers within government of the ill-fated mine were motivated by anti-public ownership bias toward Devco.

This was a comment by Dean Jobb in his book Calculated Risk: Greed, Politics and the Westray Tragedy .

In any case, the $100 million in federal and provincial funds lost on that project would have gone a considerable distance toward paying the cost of developing the Donkin deposit. Furthermore, short term arrangements between Westray mine operators and Nova Scotia Power had the long term effect of forcing Devco to supply coal to Nova Scotia Power at its Trenton generator at a substantially lesser price than Nova Scotia Power was paying at other generating plants. All this left Devco in a catch 22 situation.

After compromising Devco's ability to achieve a viable future with questionable decisions during the 1980s the Conservative government started the new decade by ordering Devco to become self-sufficient. This mandate was renewed by the Liberals after they took over in 1993. Self-sufficiency was accepted by top management of Devco as a legitimate goal.

However Devco never really had a chance to achieve self-sufficiency. Until geological problems at Phalen caused losses to mount in recent years, Devco was making money on its coal operations, but it failed to achieve self-sufficiency because it was required to make larger than anticipated pension payouts, some $241 million over five years. These higher payouts were to be completed in 1999 but then it was too late. In May 1996 Senator Allan J. MacEachen stated that the loss of Devco:

—would create a major catastrophe and a social disaster for communities and their families.

Obviously in the year 2000 Cape Breton is in even worse shape than it was before. Cape Breton is struggling with a 23% unemployment rate. Today Nova Scotia's unemployment rate has gone down to 12%. It has recovered somewhat, but in Cape Breton nothing has changed. The unemployment rate at 20% is only slightly lower than in 1996. Employment and participation levels are almost identical.

If the loss of Devco jobs were a major catastrophe in 1996, it is even more of a major catastrophe now. The federal government has an historical responsibility to the coal industry in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. Over the past 15 years the federal government has failed in its responsibility.

Cape Breton has the coal resource, a skilled workforce and a customer in the Nova Scotia Power Corporation. That should have been a recipe for a stable and successful coal industry that would have allowed a slow but sure growth of alternative employment, but through incompetence or bad faith the federal government has dropped the ball. It has been negligent and it should be required to pay for its negligence.

If the government truly believes in the concept of responsible government, it would take responsibility for its actions over the past two decades. It would work with the people of Cape Breton and their elected members to make Bill C-11 a better piece of legislation, one that would strengthen the embattled community of Cape Breton and not further undermine it.

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, June 2nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to finish my comments on Bill C-11, the federal government's legislation to divest itself of the assets of the Cape Breton Development Corporation.

In my earlier remarks I was pleased to give some of the background of coal production in Cape Breton and the benefits which have been accrued by all Canadians from this production.

As I said, Cape Breton has been producing coal for 300 years, long before Ottawa bureaucrats existed to criticize the enterprise. The coal produced in Cape Breton fired the steamers which helped build the British Empire. They were critical components of industrial expansion in the early days of Canada.

The contribution which Cape Breton coal made to our war efforts in both wars cannot be underestimated but unfortunately are underestimated. I would say that the entire contribution of our Cape Breton coal industry has been underestimated by the government.

I have heard both the Liberals and the Reformers whine about the money pit of Cape Breton and why we require drastic legislation at this point. However I have never heard them talk about the money saved by businesses and residents of Atlantic Canada because of cheap Cape Breton coal being used to create electricity. I have not heard members opposite credit Devco with making $6 billion.

I would like to talk a bit about that. Bill C-11, as it is currently constructed, I believe would create a money pit in Cape Breton. The bill could see 6,000 jobs lost in relatively small communities, 15,000 direct layoffs, with up to three times that many lost due to downward spinoffs. The impact would be astounding. Along with what I have already mentioned, we would see the loss of roughly $79 million per year in wages and salaries. It would also mean the loss to Ottawa of roughly $28 million a year in Canada pension plan, employment insurance and income tax contributions. It would also mean a total estimated annual economic loss, direct and indirect, of as high as $300 million for this region.

I firmly believe that economically destroying a community is really what creates a money pit, not working to preserve it. It not only fails to make economic sense, it fails to make moral sense.

There used to be an understanding that part of the public responsibility of government was to help Canadians and not just guard corporate rights in an unfettered marketplace, but not any more. There used to be an appreciation and a respect for the importance of certain national institutions in this country, but obviously not any more.

Today I learned that the reprieve of local news shows at the CBC, which is another sock from the Liberals to Cape Bretoners and maritimers, and which I have already called a sham to get the government through the next election, is not even what the government has taken credit for. The national programs will get millions to produce slick, commercial free, 30 minute national news programs. They will have the time to develop the ideas and they will receive the resources to do it right, an approach which local shows should obviously receive as well. However, due to the Liberals' brokerage compromise, the local shows have scant days to come up with millions in cuts in the local show cities, including Fredericton, Charlottetown, Halifax and St. John's, so that they can throw together a 24 minute broadcast with 6 minutes of commercials to reflect these communities to themselves.

Like Devco, the focus is on cutting a national institution which supports the regions. This is the Liberals' approach to Atlantic Canada: more for the centre and, quite frankly, screw the regions.

It is time to revisit this government's minimum wage commitment to this beautiful people and this beautiful island. I join with my colleagues in the NDP to demand revisions to Bill C-11 to respect the needs and the contributions of the people of Cape Breton.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, June 2nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, we now know what the Liberal CBC plan really means to local communities.

The new 30 minutes of national news will be slick, well resourced and commercial free, but local news has until next week to cut millions of dollars and hundreds of staff so that they can fit into a 24 minute format with many commercials. Toronto wins again.

Will the government admit that the local news shows are only being kept on life support until after the election, at which time they will be shut down entirely?

[Cape Breton Development Corporation Divestiture Authorization And Dissolution Act, June 2nd, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak to the amendments as well as to the essence of Bill C-11, an act to authorize the divestiture of the assets of the Cape Breton Development Corporation. I am honoured to follow the two Cape Breton members of parliament who spoke so passionately to the issue. I would like to try to follow in their footsteps.

With this bill the government will be carrying out its intention to privatize Devco. As we know, the government has a passion for privatization. It has an obsession for cutting loose some of the jewels in our crown, the actual treasures that we hold dear in this country. It believes that Devco should be cut loose and in fact that Atlantic Canada should be cut loose.

We have seen this over and over from the government. We have seen our health care system cut loose. We have seen the government's commitment move from a 50% commitment to national medicare down to a 13% commitment. We have seen our railways cut loose. Now we have seen the CBC cut loose. We have seen over $400 million removed from the CBC, our national broadcasting corporation. We have seen 3,800 jobs disappear. It is all with the assumption that somehow the private sector will take up the slack, and we know it will not.

With Devco the argument is the same, that the private sector will somehow do a better job. This is a sort of ubiquitous mantra of the government. I almost think government members repeat it on their treadmills when they are exercising or when they are going to sleep at night. They may mutter cuts are the best policy; private sector good, public sector bad; corporations are always right. Of course there is the continuing mantra that Cape Breton is a financial money pit.

It is interesting that not only is this last mantra a false one. It is also one that has been taken up by the official opposition, the Reform Party. I guess the Reform Party has finally become an Ottawa insider, adopting the bureaucratic mantras in the same way as the frontbench opposite. I want to bring some of those fallacies to the attention of the House.

It is important for everyone to note that Cape Breton has been producing coal for 300 years, long before Ottawa bureaucrats existed to criticize the enterprise. The coal produced in Cape Breton fired the steamers which helped build the British Empire. They were critical components of industrial expansion in the early days of Canada.

The contribution which Cape Breton coal made to our war efforts in both wars cannot be underestimated. At the end of the second world war 17,000 Cape Breton workers kept the coal moving. Like many other industries after the war, there were to be big changes in coal production, and there were.

The mines declined substantially and by 1965 they were ready for closure, which would have thrown 6,500 miners out of work. However the more progressive government of the day than the one that introduced Bill C-11 understood that allowing the collapse of the coal industry was against the public interest for two reasons.

The Pearson government understood that there was a viable economic need for coal production in Cape Breton to continue. It is almost eerie how the setting up of Devco seemed to have foretold the oil crisis of the seventies. Until Devco, power in Nova Scotia was produced by oil generating stations. If these stations had not changed to coal fired stations in the late sixties, the impact of the OPEC crisis would have decimated the Nova Scotia economy.

I heard both Liberals and Reformers whine about the money pit of Cape Breton requiring this drastic legislation. However I never hear them talk about the billions saved by businesses and residents of Atlantic Canada because of cheap Cape Breton coal being used to create electricity.

The mantra continues: Cape Breton's Devco should be cut loose; the private sector will do a better job; and the government will continue to offer call centre jobs to this beautiful island. I say shame on the government's minimum wage commitments to Cape Breton and its people.

Today I learned that the reprieve of local news shows at the CBC, which is another sock from the Liberals to maritimers and which I have already called a sham to get the government through the next election, is not what the government had taken credit for. The national programs will get millions to produce a slick commercial free 30 minutes of national news. They will get time to develop the ideas and will get the resources to do it right, an approach which local shows have always done well. Due to the Liberal broken promises, the local shows have scant days to come up with the millions in cuts.

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, May 30th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, the president of the CBC has said that the broadcaster is not a priority for the government and that the CBC is on life support due to underfunding.

Due to passionate protests by Canadians from coast to coast, the CBC has pulled back from axing regional shows entirely. But the problem remains and it is one of money and political will.

My question is for the finance minister. At a time when the federal coffers are overflowing, why is it that the government is leaving the CBC, one of our most revered national institutions, on life support?

[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, May 30th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the CBC announced that local TV news will be cut by two-thirds. Shame on the Liberal members who cut $400 million from the CBC and then feign outrage when the cuts are actually implemented. Do they not read their own budgets before they vote?

Shame on the Prime Minister for making the CBC slice up successful shows like 24 Hours , Here and Now , 1st Edition and Compass . His approach is the wisdom of Solomon gone horribly wrong.

The most cynical part of this whole affair is that the Liberals will promise yet again to support the CBC when they go to the people in the next election, and then will break that promise one more time, this time killing regional programs forever.

I call on the government to recommit to the dream of public broadcasting which truly reflects regions to regions, and take the CBC off life supports now.